“Where shall I go? I have no home. I had a place but guests came and they remained. Where shall I go?” That’s a heartbreaking sliver of the poem The Guest Room in The Hollow of the Hand. The book is a collaboration between poet PJ Harvey and photographer Seamus Murphy. Often photographers tend to caption their images. But it’s rare to see actual poetry placed alongside the photographs. The images in this book have their own sections which are separete from the poems. To really experience this book, you need to go through it page by page.
I reviewed this book originally back in 2017. And another reading of it made me want to come back.
This book is a marriage of poetry and documentary. Is it a photo book? It’s more than that. This is a book that makes you feel the photos without even looking at them. Very few books can do that — but pure art that this book puts together is worth every single page turn.
Seamus Murphy’s images are presented in a way that I really haven’t seen in most photo books. Instead of there being a slight luster layer, it’s matte. You can hit the images with as much direct light as you want and they’ll still be impactful. Some of the images are split right down the middle — and I hate that. But many of the photographs stand on their own pages. Because of theuse of this kind of paper, the images have a color unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It pops in a way that feels like the most meticulously handrawn colored pencil prints I’ve ever experienced. Of course, there are also several black and white images. However, they don’t stand out as much as the color work.
To truly understand this book, allow us to give you a tip about reading poetry. Line breaks often strongly encourage a pause of at least a half a second. But it should also feel natural to you. Reading the poetry often made me give heavy sighs. That’s because the poems are writting about some really tought places. Some of it is about Kosovo, some about Afghanistan, and the rest is about Washginton DC. If you don’t understand what’s so difficult about these places, then you probably don’t watch the news. And if that’s the case, then the images and poetry in this book will make you feel it. It’s a depression that I think people just need to go through and fully experience.
Because of the poetry in this book, you can’t, and shouldn’t get through this book in a single day. Instead, like a holy book, you should experience a little bit of it at a time. That goes for the words and the photographs both.
Do I like this book? Yes. It’s innovative because of the mix of poetry and the collaboration of two incredible artistc formats. Do I have heavy feelings about this book? Yes. But like any photojournalist, sometimes I need a break from it. Over the years that I’ve owned it, I’ve come back to it time and time again.
You can pick up the Hollow of the Hand on Amazon.